Resurgence of Peruvian Coca

In a piece in the New York Times this morning, Simon Romero writes that coca production is “surging” in Peru. And what the paper calls “a major repositioning of the Andean drug trade” may soon push the country ahead of Colombia as the world’s number one exporter of cocaine (a “distinction” Peru held for much of the 1980s). Interestingly, Romero adds that the re-expansion of coca production comes as both Colombian and Mexican cartels push deeper into Peru. In addition, the country has seen the re-emergence of two factions of the Shining Path, also competing for control of the lucrative cocaine trade. The words of Gen. Juan Zaraté, charged with overseeing Peru’s eradication efforts, demonstrate the feeling of hopelessness among many counter-narcotics officials in the country. “The struggle against coca,” he says, “can resemble detaining the wind.”

The resurgence of the cocaine trade in Peru has many analysts invoking the so-called “balloon effect”: the idea that successful anti-drug efforts in one location merely squeeze production and/or trafficking to other areas. The statistics tell the story. Here’s what Romero writes:

The increased cultivation in central Peru contrasts with the situation in Colombia, where cultivation fell 18 percent in 2008, according to the United Nations. In Peru, cultivation climbed 4.5 percent that year, capping a decade in which areas under cultivation had increased 45 percent since 1998. Cultivation is also rising in Bolivia, though that country remains third in overall production.

According to historian Paul Gootenberg, author of the book Andean Cocaine, there’s plenty to blame in Washington’s anti-drug policies. “Washington’s policy of supply-oriented intervention inevitably improves the efficiencies and entrepreneurial skills of traffickers,” he says. And as the paper writes, while Washington announced a new drug plan in May that emphasizes prevention and treatment in the United States, it has “left financing for eradication projects in the Andes largely unchanged, despite debate over whether such efforts can sharply restrict the supply of cocaine or significantly increase the price in the United States in the long run.”

Beyond this morning’s headline:

· In Colombia, news, again from the Times, that three hostages held by FARC rebels were rescued by some 300 Colombian military personnel in the remote southern region of Guaviare this weekend. The three individuals rescued were all Colombian soldiers captured by the FARC in 1998. One of the men, Gen. Luis Mendieta, was thought to be the highest-ranking captive still held by the rebel group. The successful operation was announced by Colombian officials Sunday. The FARC still holds some 18 members of the Colombian security forces. More details and video of the announcement at El Tiempo and El Espectador.

· Two other significant stories from Colombia today. First, from the Miami Herald, a report on the struggle for social aid facing the country’s internally displaced. The paper says the Colombian government “officially recognizes that 3.3 million Colombians have been displaced by violence since 1997.” [Human rights groups like Codhes, the principal Colombia rights organization that works on issues of displacement, say as many as 4.9 million have been displaced since the mid-1980s, “including 2 million in the past eight years.”] But the government is increasingly turning away such individuals from government social aid agencies like Acción Social – what many rights groups call “an effort by the government to exclude people from the system, to try to make the problem go away.” In 2009, 43 percent of those who declared themselves as “displaced” were rejected when applying for government aid. In 1997, the average inclusion rate had been around 80 percent, says the paper.

· And from the Washington Post this weekend, Juan Forero reports on the 30-year sentence handed down against Col. Luis Alfonso Plazas Vega for his role in disappearing 11 individuals during the 1985 siege of the Palace of Justice. Both Amnesty International and the UN’s High Commissioner on Human Rights, Navi Pillay, applauded the decision last week – urging President Alvaro Uribe to respect the ruling. But the Post’s reporting examines the story “from below,” profiling the “tireless” work of Catholic Priest-turned-investigator, Javier Giraldo, in helping to bring to justice those responsible for abuses committed during the siege – as well as various other human rights violations in the country. Time and again, Giraldo has been attacked by the Uribe government for his work [Most recently, Uribe himself called the priest a “useful idiot” for his role in bringing out accusations of collaboration between paramilitary groups and Uribe’s brother, Santiago]. But, the work Giraldo has been indispensable for many rights groups. “He’s incredibly important -- a moral figure who is not linked to any armed groups,” says Gimena Sanchez, a Colombia specialist at the Washington Office on Latin America.

· In neighboring Venezuela, a new arrest warrant against media magnate, Guillermo Zuloaga, was issued by Venezuelan authorities Friday. According to the AP, “Intelligence agents arrived at a home owned by Guillermo Zuloaga seeking to arrest him and one of his sons Friday night, but their whereabouts were unknown.” The accusations against the president and majority shareholder of the anti-Chavez Globovisión stem from allegedly keeping “24 new Toyota sport-utility vehicles” stored at a home owned by Zuloaga. According to Chavez officials, that falls under the category of illegal “hoarding.” Zuloaga, who also owns several car dealerships, says he keeps the cars at his home out of fear of being robbed. As the AP notes, the attempted arrest of Zuloaga came on the same day Venezuelan journalist Francisco Perez was sentenced in a separate case for “slandering” the government. A columnist for the paper, El Carabobeno, Perez “called it a blatant violation of free speech and said he would appeal.”

· In Cuba, state officials freed one political prisoner Saturday and began transferring six others to jails closer to their respective homes [Update: LAHT reports this morning that five of the six transfers have taken place, as of Monday morning]. The release and transfers are part of a deal negotiated with the Roman Catholic Church, and the AP calls it “the most important sign yet that the government may be softening its hard line stance on organized dissent.” The individual released, the wheelchair bound Ariel Sigler, was one of 75 individuals detained in a 2003 crackdown. IPS has more on continuing discussions between the Church and the Cuban government – this ahead of a four-day annual conference organized by the Church, which this year will go beyond Church issues alone to also discuss “the economy, migration and the relations between Cubans at home and abroad.” Also, word from the AP that US and Cuban officials will hold a new round of immigration talks in Washington “within days.” The meetings follow similar discussions held in Havana last February.

· From the drug war in Mexico, the New York Times reports on the gruesome massacre of 19 men at a drug rehab center in Chihuahua last Thursday night. The Wall Street Journal reports on a recent wave of abductions of PEMEX workers and accusations that drug cartels are behind the kidnappings. The paper writes: “The abductions mark a twist in Mexico's fight against drug gangs, raising worries that cartels are increasingly infiltrating parts of the company in order to smuggle oil products.” And this morning the AP reports on the arrest of a former homicide detective, suspected of becoming a “top enforcer” for a US-born trafficker in Mexico. Irvin Solano, former state police detective, allegedly recruited hit men and procured weapons for Edgar Valdez Villareal (aka “La Barbie”), one of Mexico's most-wanted cartel suspects. Solano was arrested last Friday in the central state of Morelos.

· In Brazil, debate has erupted over a new oil revenue sharing bill which would divide oil profits equally among all the country’s states. However, the bill is unlikely to become law, says the New York Times, as President Lula da Silva said over the weekend that he plans to veto it, should the bill reach his desk.

· Opinions. The LA Times ran an editorial on Brazil over the weekend, saying the Obama administration must not let a growing list of political differences with the South American power derail the full US-Brazil relationship. In the Wall Street Journal, Mary Anastasia O’Grady also has Brazil on her mind. She’s less diplomatic, however, calling Lula a “resentful, Third-World ankle-biter” with “lunatic foreign policies.” [Brazil’s vote against Iran sanctions at the UN being her most recent “evidence.”] She also argues that it’s on foreign policy issues where Lula plays to his left wing base. Of the differences between the US and Brazil (and much of the region for that matter), Honduras still remains one. The Journal takes a stab at that issue as well today, anointing Secretary of State Hillary Clinton its newest ally for her words on Honduras last week. The Journal., in its own words:

“While she still refers to Mr. Zelaya's removal as a ‘coup,’ it is impossible to ignore the deeper message contained in her remarks: The Chávez method of destroying democratic institutions using street mobs is not a model for regional peace and prosperity. Her remarks were also a welcome response to Brazil, which has been pursuing an increasingly anti-American foreign policy and has championed Mr. Zelaya."